bigskyscion

I have Sirius set up with a Pioneer HTP-2900 and the Sirius add on. I was living in rurual Montana and got great reception and loved the setup. Reception is great, even when driving through the canyons, during super cloudy days and during snow storms.

However, when I traveled to larger cities (Salt Lake, Sacramento, San Francisco) the reception kept getting very spotty. It would always be "Acquiring Signal." This would occur near and in these larger cities even when there was no overhead obstruction. In fact, it happens in Sacramento when I am near the causeway...no problem with obstructions at all. But once I am away from the cities (even just the burbs like Citrus Heights) things work just fine.

I have the antenna mounted on the center line of the roof, an inch or so from the liftgate seam, right where the TRD Sparks directions suggest mounting it. I know the wiring is solid and all connections are tight and secure.

Any ideas?

prescottn

if the antenna is running parallell to any power wires (ie aftermarket amp) that could cause this....

Also, do you have a factory head unit? What model pioneer sirius receiver did you get? There is an older style that imo is crap, and the newer one which is smaller and silver (I switched to this one about 6 months ago and have never had one problem or lost signal with it. I lived out in Rancho Cordova and worked in Roseville for 4 months last year and never had one problem my antenna is mounted in the same place yours is, but I have a pioneer premier DEH 800 headunit

cobb

The sirius satellites spins in a figure 8 from North Dakota to Mexico and back, so yes, tall buildings in NY or CA will cause signal problems.

equinox2355

I would normally agree BUT sirius also has terrestrial repeaters in large cities, not sure why you would get bad signal in the city, I never have

mb2008

Try the newer antenna. I don't have it but I heard closer to when satellite radio came out, one person a family member knew got it and the antenna kept going bad and somehow breaking (Don't know the details). The guy had to keep spending $60 to get a new antenna. Maybe that's your problem if you have an older antenna version.

cobb

The windshield antenna is horrible, the sat antenna needs a 18 inch grounding plane to get best reception and not all areas have land based repeaters. Also some roof mount antennas are prone to water seapage which ruins its reception.

bigskyscion

It gets spectacular reception everywhere but near large cities.

It doesn't come in or out anywhere else. No water damage that I know of. The antenna is mounted on the roof as per TRD Sparks directions.

It seems to be a spatially localized phenomena -- that is, reception completely depends on where I am. Never had any problems out in the boonies, even with heavy cloud cover, deep terrain (canyons with steep walls), etc. Just near big cities....Weird....

mb2008

Look what just happened to be a banner at the bottom of this page. It's not cars but this could partially explain the problem. As we all know manufactures always look for the cheapest way to make something, so it's possible your antenna is made cheap, but I don't know if you can get a more powerful one or not.
http://www.wholehousefmtransmitter.c...ransmitter.php

cobb

Maybe theres a ufo that hovers over the city? Microwaves cant pass through a ufo like they do clouds and trees.

a020731

Big cities should have terrestrial repeaters. I am on the 22nd floor of a skyscraper in downtown St. Louis. I have no window, but pickup sirius without a problem. Depending on where I am in the building, I don't even need to plug in the antenna.

JamesDaurio

I am also having issues just like that. I recently bought an 06 xB in orange county california. Did someone say there is a better antenna? Where can I get it? Or a better receiver? Thanks

bigskyscion

I appreciate all the responses. It's almost as if there's a dome over cities like SLC that block out the satellite or repeaters until I get out of town...Salt Lake is the city I have had the most trouble picking up a signal...I usually can't get a signal going west on I-80 until I am 10-15 miles out of town...any other suggestions?

cobb

You need a roof mount and to put it dead center to give it a perfect grounding plane.